Luis de la Vega dreamed of singing when he was a child, but his parents encouraged him to find stable work. He studied electrical engineering and his welding job provided a comfortable life for his family. But when he could not longer sustain them, he emigrated illegally to America. The Guatemala immigrant is pursuing opera at the Community Music Center in the Mission District.
Clarification: In the video de la Vega mentions that his application to become an understudy was rejected at an American institution because of his immigration status. This institution was not the Community Music Center, which welcomes all students to study music.
Rosa, this is a beautiful piece. Thank you. Just to clarify, Community Music Center welcomes all people to study music (as opposed to the organization that rejected Luis’ request to be an understudy). Luis is a wonderful addition to our community.
the comment i left earlier was for another story; this is magnificent rosa.
What a litany of nastiness–you folks have no soul. May you become constipated by your pinched pennies.
You focus on process, but the real issue as former Education official Dianne Ravitch points out, is content: all of these byzantine)”tough” rules lead to one place: teaching to the test, and a progressive dumbing down. Ooops, one more thing: Race to the Top (the new name for No Child Left Behind) also encourages institutional fraud on the local and state levels,and we’ve plenty of that too.